Today, enterprises often use a content management system to search and retrieve information from large databases. Commonly, text search engines are used to search and retrieve textual records in these databases using text queries and/or queries with logical operations on text. There are many known types of search engines that can perform these text searching functions.
However, enterprise often now use multimedia objects as part of their operations. These multimedia objects can contain text, images, audio, video, and/or any other type of sensory information as part of their content. Different types of search engines have also been developed to handle the different types of multimedia content.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to search and retrieve multimedia objects. For example, a search for multimedia objects for content related to “Porsche” can be a formidable task. In addition to a text-based search for the word “Porsche,” it may be desirable to use a phonetic search engine to search for words that sound like “Porsche.” In addition, it may be desirable to use an image search engine to search for images of various Porsche models. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide methods and systems that can coordinate the operation of multiple search engines across multiple types of media.
In addition, due to the time-based nature of video and audio content, it may be desirable to search for content in multimedia objects based on temporal constraints. For example, a user may wish to search for a video sequence “when a Porsche passes a Ferrari,” or “when two Porsches go through an intersection within three minutes of each other.” As another example, a user may wish to search for content in which a bright light (in video content) occurs within seconds of a loud noise (in audio content). Unfortunately, known content management systems cannot perform such searches through multimedia content with time-based constraints. Therefore, it would also be desirable to provide methods and systems that are capable of performing searches that have time-based constraints.
Furthermore, as another effect of the time-based nature of video and audio content, it may be desirable to coordinate which search engines are used to search through various portions of a multimedia object. For example, an audio file may include long periods of silence between sounds. In this instance, it may therefore be desirable to control when a phonetic search engine begins and ends its processing. As another example, if the sound for part of a video file is significantly distorted, it may be useful to rely on a text search engine to search through the text transcript for that part of the video rather than a phonetic search engine to search through the audio. Unfortunately, known content management systems simply direct a search engine to operate on the entire multimedia object regardless of its anticipated accuracy. This leads to inaccurate results and unnecessary use of system resources. Therefore, it would also be desirable to provide methods and systems that are capable of coordinating the operation of multiple search engines through portions of a multimedia object based on the anticipated accuracy of each search engine.